Topics in ‘tips and tricks’

Thanks for coming through with more questions, guys! I’ve got enough for this week and maybe another week after that. You rock. This first question I picked because it’s related to JavaScript, and, well, I’m in a JavaScript mood (and in the mood to pimp our ebook!). Nicolas Papon, a French developer, wrote in: I […]

I’m trying something new here at Slash7. To put it simply: I’m taking your questions! Next week, I will answer one marketing (pimpin’) / product design / interaction design / graphic design question a day, right here on slash7. You should ask me about your site colors, or a tough usability problem you’re having, how […]

In the screencast I did with Miles, we ended up talking quite a bit about how I approach the development and brainstorming process when I’m working on a new project. People seemed intrigued by the topic of conversation, so I’ve been preparing a longer treatise on the subject. In short: pen and paper is your […]

Have you ever used the Rails console? I’d love to see a show of hands (or comments, really). If not—boy, are you in for a treat. The console lets you fiddle with parts of your Rails app—models especially—in a real-time environment, instead of waiting for page reloads and clicking on links and using object dumps […]

Phew! RailsConf is over. It was awesome and exhausting—from the late nights in the crummy hotel “bar” and agonizing over lackluster wireless, to the random accordian music, hilarious jokes, and pick-up games of Mario Kart DS. I met so many great people I can’t even keep them straight in my memory. If we talked at […]

My favorite new web server is a real dog. No, really. And it’s no poncy purebred, either—it’s a Mongrel. Goodbye, Webrick Webrick is the built-in Ruby web server that is the default for each Rails app you create or download—when you type script/server, that’s what it’s running, unless you’ve configured it otherwise. It used to […]

I’ve gotten several emails about my Atom feed being broken. Well, I read them all, but I haven’t had the mental bandwidth to respond or really look into the matter. (Why the Atom interest all of a sudden? I’d never heard of this problem until a couple weeks ago.) Which is just as well, because […]

Into JavaScript? Have I got good news for you!If you’re interested in JavaScript-driven web apps, snazzy visual fx, and generally confusing people into thinking your site is Flash—but oh-so-much better—you should buy our JavaScript Performance Rocks! book while it’s still in beta. Written by Thomas Fuchs, the creator of Scriptaculous, and yours truly, the maker […]

To my most beloved readers, You may have noticed some strange behavior around slash7 this past 24 hours. First, the site was just gone. Then it required a username and password (and the notification listed my email address and AIM account for you to “get credentials”). I’ve never received so much reader mail in one […]

Well, I wasn’t expecting Apple Computer, Inc., to get in on the act, but I suppose it’s unsurprising that they have. Ruby on Rails and OS X are, after all, two great tastes that taste great together. It appears that that the Rails community drives enough folks towards Macs that it’s on their radar. (Demo […]